Apparatus, system and method capable of integrating a cellular phone stack in an extended firmware interface (EFI) layer

ABSTRACT

An embodiment of the present invention provides an apparatus, comprising a wireless device capable of integrating a cellular phone stack in an extended firmware interface (EFI) layer, wherein the cellular phone stack within the EFI layer may include TDMA or CDMA-based technology. An embodiment of the present invention may further provide at least one agent running under an OS/EFI continuously monitoring said wireless device status, OS availability and remaining power and wherein anytime events occur where said OS is unavailable, missing, infected, corrupted or when the remaining power is less than threshold, the wireless device may switch itself to the low power secure EFI mode where it may continue to use basic cell phone services and applications seamlessly.

BACKGROUND

Wireless voice and data services are ubiquitous throughout society.Although not limited to wireless computing devices and wireless mobilephones, wireless handsets and computing devices may be merged intosingle devices for ease of use. Today, if the operating system on awireless device fails or becomes corrupted or unavailable due toinherent flaws, power remaining, environmental conditions or viruses,the user looses their ability to run important applications and services(such as voice communication) on the affected device. The operatingsystem, in fact, becomes a single point of failure for conducting vitalvoice calls.

Thus, a strong need exists for system, method and apparatus thatovercomes these limitations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter regarded as the invention is particularly pointed outand distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification.The invention, however, both as to organization and method of operation,together with objects, features, and advantages thereof, may best beunderstood by reference to the following detailed description when readwith the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates the integration of a cellular phone stack in anExtended Firmware Interface EFI in an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 1 a depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of an embeddedfirmware agent.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the (Operating System) OS to EFI cellphone stack switching logic of one embodiment of the present invention;and

FIG. 3 illustrates the monitoring agent operation of one embodiment ofthe present invention.

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration,elements illustrated in the figures have not necessarily been drawn toscale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements areexaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, whereconsidered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among thefigures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention.However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that thepresent invention may be practiced without these specific details. Inother instances, well-known methods, procedures, components and circuitshave not been described in detail so as not to obscure the presentinvention.

Some portions of the detailed description that follows are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits or binary digital signals within a computer memory. Thesealgorithmic descriptions and representations may be the techniques usedby those skilled in the data processing arts to convey the substance oftheir work to others skilled in the art.

An algorithm is here, and generally, considered to be a self-consistentsequence of acts or operations leading to a desired result. Theseinclude physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, thoughnot necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical ormagnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined,compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times,principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals asbits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers or the like.It should be understood, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussions, it is appreciated that throughout the specificationdiscussions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,”“calculating,” “determining,” or the like, refer to the action and/orprocesses of a computer or computing system, or similar electroniccomputing device, that manipulate and/or transform data represented asphysical, such as electronic, quantities within the computing system'sregisters and/or memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computing system's memories, registers orother such information storage, transmission or display devices.

Embodiments of the present invention may include apparatuses forperforming the operations herein. An apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the desired purposes, or it may comprise a generalpurpose computing device selectively activated or reconfigured by aprogram stored in the device. Such a program may be stored on a storagemedium, such as, but not limited to, any type of disk including floppydisks, optical disks, compact disc read only memories (CD-ROMs),magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMs), electrically programmable read-only memories (EPROMs),electrically erasable and programmable read only memories (EEPROMs),magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions, and capable of being coupled to asystem bus for a computing device.

The processes and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computing device or other apparatus. Various generalpurpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with theteachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct a morespecialized apparatus to perform the desired method. The desiredstructure for a variety of these systems will appear from thedescription below. In addition, embodiments of the present invention arenot described with reference to any particular programming language. Itwill be appreciated that a variety of programming languages may be usedto implement the teachings of the invention as described herein. Inaddition, it should be understood that operations, capabilities, andfeatures described herein may be implemented with any combination ofhardware (discrete or integrated circuits) and software.

Use of the terms “coupled” and “connected”, along with theirderivatives, may be used. It should be understood that these terms arenot intended as synonyms for each other. Rather, in particularembodiments, “connected” may be used to indicate that two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact with each other.“Coupled” my be used to indicated that two or more elements are ineither direct or indirect (with other intervening elements between them)physical or electrical contact with each other, and/or that the two ormore elements co-operate or interact with each other (e.g. as in a causean effect relationship).

An embodiment of the present invention provides the integration of acellular phone stack in a firmware layer such as, but not limited to,the Extended Firmware Interface (EFI) in a wireless device.

Turning now to FIG. 1 a, shown generally as 100 a, is a block diagram ofone embodiment of an embedded firmware agent. In the example of FIG. 1 athe embedded firmware agent may have an interface compliant with anExtensible Firmware Interface (EFI) as defined by the EFISpecifications, version 1.10, published Nov. 26, 2003, available fromIntel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif. In alternate embodiments, otherfirmware components can also be used.

In one embodiment, the embedded firmware agent may include agent bus 125a coupled with system interface 105 a and with bi-directional agent businterface 150 a. System interface 105 a may provide an interface throughwhich the embedded firmware agent communicates with the host system. Inone embodiment, the embedded firmware agent further includes dynamicmemory 120 a that may be coupled with agent bus 125 a. Dynamic memory120 a may provide storage for instructions and/or data to be used duringoperation.

The embedded firmware agent may further include non-volatile storage 110a that may be coupled with agent bus 125 a to store static data and/orinstructions. In one embodiment, the embedded firmware agent may includecontrol circuitry 130 a coupled with agent bus 125 a that may performcontrol operations and/or execute instructions provided by dynamicmemory 120 a and/or non-volatile storage 110a.

One clear advantage of this approach is that an EFI based cell phonestack consumes less power compared to a typical (Operating System) OScell phone stack. The cellular phone stack within the EFI layer mayinclude any existing or future technologies including but not limited toTDMA-based technology such as GSM/GPRS or FDMA-based technology such asCDMA. Components of one embodiment of the present invention may includean EFI based mobile phone/handheld, a cell phone stack with monitoringagents (e.g. power) running under EFI and applications, cellular stackand switching logic running under OS mode.

Turning now to FIG. 1 shown generally as 100, is an illustration of theintegration of a cellular phone stack in EFI. As displayed in the abovediagram, agents running under OS/EFI continuously monitor the mobiledevice 100 status, OS availability and remaining power. Anytime suchevents 215 occur where the OS may be unavailable, missing, infected,corrupted or when the remaining power is less than threshold 310, themobile device 100 switches itself to the low power secure EFI mode whereit may continue to use basic cell phone services and applications foremergency purposes seamlessly. This mode may not offer an environmentfor rich OS based applications however the mobile device becomesoperational even under these low power circumstances—which may be a veryimportant life-saving feature in certain emergency situations. Alsobased upon the context and or activity, a mobile device 100 may enterinto the low power EFI mode where the user may extend its power andcontinue to use it for making critical calls and utilize basic services,regardless of the presence and functionality of the OS.

Turning to FIG. 2, illustrated generally at 200, is a flowchart showingthe OS to EFI cell phone stack switching logic of one embodiment of thepresent invention where a mobile device may enter into a low-power modeand hence all critical applications may be allowed to run in thislow-power mode. After start 205, the EFI monitoring agent monitors thehealth of the OS at 210 and at 215 if no failure is reported a return to210 is accomplished until a failure is reported. When a failure isreported at 215, at 220 transfer control to the EFI and theapplications/services continue within EFI execution environment withstop at 225.

FIG. 3 illustrates generally at 300 the monitoring agent operation ofone embodiment of the present invention. After start 305, the batterylevel of a device is monitored at 310 and at 315 it is determined if thebattery level is below a threshold. If the battery level is below thethreshold, at control is transferred to EFI and the device is allowed torun only mission critical applications and services. If no at 315 thenit is determined if the battery level is above a predetermined leveland, if so, control is transferred to OS and all applications andservices are allowed to run. If not, a return to start is accomplished.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides an article,comprising a storage medium having stored thereon instructions, that,when executed by a computing platform results in integrating a cellularphone stack in an extended firmware interface (EFI) layer. Thisembodiment may further include adapting said wireless device to includewithin said cellular phone stack within said EFI layer, TDMA orCDMA-based technology and wherein the instructions may control theintegration of at least one agent running under an OS/EFI tocontinuously monitor said wireless device status, OS availability andremaining power.

Yet another embodiment of the present invention provides a wirelesscommunication system, comprising a wireless communication infrastructureenabling the communication between a plurality of wireless devices,wherein at least one of the wireless devices may be capable ofintegrating a cellular phone stack in an extended firmware interface(EFI) layer.

While certain features of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed herein, many modifications, substitutions, changes, andequivalents will now occur to those skilled in the art. It is,therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended tocover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spiritof the invention.

1. An apparatus, comprising: a wireless device capable of integrating acellular phone stack in a firmware layer; and at least one monitoringagent running under the firmware layer, and applications, cellular stackand switching logic running under an OS mode, wherein said cellularphone stack within said firmware layer is a cellular phone stack withinan extended firmware interface (EFI) layer and capable includes TDMA orCDMA-based technology.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein anytimeevents occur where an OS is unavailable, missing, infected, corruptedand when a remaining power is less than a threshold, said wirelessdevice switches itself to a low power secure EFI mode where it cancontinue to use basic cell phone services and applications.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2, wherein based upon the context and or activity,said wireless device may enter into a low power EFI mode where saidwireless device can extend its power thereby enabling continued use formaking critical calls and utilizing basic services, regardless of thepresence and functionality of said OS.
 4. The apparatus of claim 1,further comprising a power management portion of said wireless devicecapable of coordinating the transfer/switching of said cell phone stackfrom said OS-mode to a low power secure EFI-mode.
 5. A method of powermanagement in a wireless device, comprising: integrating a cellularphone stack in an extended firmware interface (EFI) layer; integratingat least one monitoring agent running under the firmware layer, andapplications, cellular stack and switching logic running under an OSmode; and adapting said wireless device to include within said cellularphone stack within said EFI layer, TDMA or CDMA-based technology.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, further comprising switching said wireless device toa low power secure EFI mode anytime events occur where an OS isunavailable, missing, infected, corrupted and when a remaining power isless than a threshold.
 7. The method of claim 6, further comprisingentering, based upon the context and or activity of said wirelessdevice, into a low power EFI mode wherein said wireless device canextend its power thereby enabling continued use for making criticalcalls and utilizing basic services, regardless of the presence andfunctionality of said OS.
 8. The method of claim 5, further comprisingcoordinating the transfer/switching of said cell phone stack from saidOS-mode to a low power secure EFI-mode by a power management portion ofsaid wireless device.
 9. A wireless device, comprising: a storage mediumhaving stored thereon instructions, that, when executed by a computingplatform results in integrating a cellular phone stack in an extendedfirmware interface (EFI) layer, wherein: said wireless device is adaptedto include within said cellular phone stack within said EFI layer, TDMAor CDMA-based technology; and wherein said instructions control theintegration of at least one monitoring agent running under the firmwarelayer, and applications, cellular stack and switching logic runningunder an OS mode.
 10. The wireless device of claim 9, wherein saidinstructions control the switching of said wireless device to a lowpower secure EFI mode anytime events occur where an OS is unavailable,missing, infected, corrupted and when a remaining power is less than athreshold, thereby enabling it to continue to use basic cell phoneservices and applications.
 11. The wireless device of claim 10, furthercomprising controlling the entering, based upon the context and oractivity of said wireless device, into a low power EFI mode where saidwireless device can extend its power thereby enabling continued use formaking critical calls and utilizing basic services, regardless of thepresence and functionality of said OS.
 12. A wireless communicationsystem, comprising: a wireless communication infrastructure enabling thecommunication between a plurality of wireless devices, wherein at leastone of said wireless devices is capable of integrating a cellular phonestack in an extended firmware interface (EFI) layer; and at least onemonitoring agent running under the firmware layer, and applications,cellular stack and switching logic running under an OS mode and whereinanytime events occur where an OS is unavailable, missing, infected,corrupted or when a remaining power is less than a threshold, saidwireless device switches itself to a low power secure EFI mode where itcan continue to use basic cell phone services and applicationsseamlessly.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein said communicationinfrastructure is TDMA or CDMA-based technology.